Posted on 08/21/2004 5:08:25 PM PDT by DixieOklahoma
ATLANTA (AP) -- Mike Crane carried more than 3,000 signatures to the state Capitol in hopes of becoming the first Southern Party of Georgia candidate on the ballot.
Wearing a baseball cap with the old Georgia flag and its Confederate battle emblem, Crane guarded closely the petitions gathered during more than 200 hours of standing outside grocery stores and going door-to-door across a seven-county north Georgia state Senate district.
Crane rubbed his beard and gave a sad grin after getting the news. Rejected. The Secretary of State's office, after weeks of review, deemed Friday that not enough of the signatures were valid, and he didn't have enough to get on the ballot this fall.
It was just the latest blow to the fledgling Southern Party. Crane was the only member trying for the state Legislature. Another candidate, running for Effingham County sheriff, was also denied the right to be on the ballot. One man was planning to run in northwest Georgia but was killed in a car accident. Another broke his leg, dooming his chances of getting the signatures needed to squeeze on a ballot typically reserved for only Democrats and Republicans.
They'd almost give up, if they didn't believe so strongly that the major parties are corrupt, and that Georgia is on a course for ruin if left in their hands.
"My interest is good government. That's what keeps me going," Crane said, pulling on a cigar outside a state office where he got his bad news Friday. "As Americans, we're losing our founding principles. This is about re-instilling honesty and integrity in government."
Founded four years ago, the Southern Party didn't really get going until the Legislature, at the direction of then-Gov. Roy Barnes, changed the state flag in 2001 to significantly shrink the Rebel battle cross.
Party members joined other Southern heritage groups to campaign against Barnes, and they had a hand in the Democrat's defeat a year later. The Southern Party was hoping the high-profile flag debate would boost their platform of smaller government guided by Christian principles.
Among their top ideas are tighter immigration laws, more freedom to display religious documents in state buildings and property tax reform.
But now, the party has only about a thousand members. Many voters haven't even heard of them.
Crane worries many never will unless laws are changed to ease the process for third parties to get on ballots. Southern Party members believe that if people could just hear about them, they'd have the major parties licked.
"It has to do with integrity," said party chairman Bradford Isbell, a Spalding County man who tries to get the word out about the Southern Party via the Internet. "Eventually there will be Southern Party candidates for races all over the place."
Their chances, though, aren't good, if other third party attempts are any indication.
Third-party candidates typically lose badly but get more attention than they would if they hadn't run at all, said Carl Cavalli, a political science professor at North Georgia College & State University who lives in the district Crane now hopes to win as a write-in candidate.
"The idea for most candidates like this is to get your name out and hope for a few converts," he said. "Maybe there's an idea of looking to the future. Any attention helps."
Crane's opponents, a Republican and a Democrat, aren't giving him much thought. Republican Chip Pearson wouldn't return phone calls about Crane, and Democrat Bobby Adams said only, "I think anybody that runs has a chance." (There is no incumbent in the district, which was created by a federal court's redistricting order this year.)
Down in Effingham, Southern Party sheriff candidate William Rowland acknowledges failure is likely. He's a write-in candidate trying to take on an incumbent. But Rowland says the Southern Party's strategy is wise, by starting small and local.
"Nothing has ever started big. If we could get in at the local level, and show how we could better local government, that's how you get people's trust.
"And they might say, 'Hey. We need this in Atlanta. Even Washington."'
And they might not. As for Crane, he believes strongly that his cause is just and that all those hours slogging across north Georgia weren't a waste. Later, chewing on a fried green tomato in a state government building's cafeteria, Crane said he didn't mind a minute of it.
"If you're gonna work for something, you might as well work for something you believe in," he said.
I guess its time to just stick with the League of the south instead of waiting on the southern party to turn around.
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